On top of all the cowling mods Iím already doing I decided to throw redoing the oil door I the mix. Using one of the Avery hidden door hinges and would like to use two Camlock km-610s as well. If I use two latches, one fwd and one aft, do I need to reinforce the door with either more glass or aluminum? Would like it not to flex and spring open in flight.

Or I guess another question, if I do reinforce it can I use a single Camlock facing outboard in the middle? Thanks...

I have a similar setup (hidden hinge and 2 Hartwell latches) and built the door using the same basic technique outlined in the plans for the stock door layout: foam covered by cloth. The difference is I cut my foam in the shape of a "T" to fit between and behind the latch cutouts.

I'm working on the oil door as well and applied the fiberglass/foam sandwich called for by the plans to stiffen the door. One thing I found when I went to do the attachment of the hidden hinge was that the thickness of the foam caused the hinge to not fit right on the cowl underside due to the added thickness. My plans to fix this are to get another piece of the foam and apply a similar strip to the underside of the cowl to bring the hinge mount even with the thicker door.

Just thought I would point this out as something I found out the hard way.

I went with a similar one like this single round button type. I doubled up the oil door with the piece cut out of the cowl epoxied to it. The door does have a little flex thatís noticeable at the edges in flight. Currently on eBay.

I used the hidden hinge, 2 of the latches like rvdave, and reinforced the door with 3 layers of carbon fiber. BTW the latches can sometimes be found on eBay for about $5, NIB,NOS. Mine came in a box with a NSN, Nato Stock Number.

On mine (RV-9A, but similar), I just applied another three layers of fiberglass cloth, and it's plenty stiff. Certainly a foam/fiberglass laminate is a more elegant solution. I had to build up the thickness anyway to make it flush with the cowl recess.

I went with two quarter-turn SkyBolt fasteners to secure the door. I've got a phillips screwdriver on the end of my fuel tester, so it's always in hand for my preflight and not an inconvenience to open.

__________________
Doug
RV-9A "slider"
Flew to Osh in 2017!
Tail number N427DKDonation made for 2018You haven't seen a tree until you've seen its shadow from the sky -- Amelia Earhart

Decided this morning to go with using a pieces of the extra baffle material to back the door. Little bit of a process to bend correctly but here's a picture, might be hard to see but the bottom piece basically folds over the top piece.

Also good tip on checking Ebay for the latches, found 2 for $17.50 each.. 4 left if you want some! They're -32 so I'll have to build the buttons up a bit to get them to go through the metal backing and the glass.

I went back and forth between using expoxy or some fantastic 3M adhesive stuff I have. In the end put the pieces together with the adhesive. Won't know till tomorrow how well it worked.

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